Colonialism and Decolonization Processes in Brazilian Witchcraft
Are we giving real support to indigenous peoples, offering their proper place in society and fighting against their still present eradication process? Or are we only concerned with gaining more knowledge for our spiritual evolution, thinking that these spirits are also here for us to use because they are similar to the Europeans ones we know, or even that these spirits could feel honored if we force them into our Witchcraft boxes with European, foreign and white roots?
Why I Stopped Protesting and Started a Garden
Certain gardens are not retreats, but attacks—attacks on the kind of world that says it is meaningless to do something so small, so local, so specific.
ANGIE SPEAKS 20: Black Little Mermaid
Join Angie Speaks as she unpicks how Diversity under capitalism can often obstruct deeper analysis of power, aesthetics and images.
Imbolc Musings - Folklore of the Crossroads
The crossroads are steeped in mystery and folklore. The place where two or more roads intersect is a liminal space, a no man’s land belonging to no person. Perhaps that is why they are places of magick and folklore. Perhaps this is why they are spaces to commune with the spirits of the wild, unseen forces that pull at us. In this world where every inch of land is owned, where we are expected to be on the go, never stopping, trying to fit it all in, where we must always be something other than our true natures, perhaps that is why the crossroads call to us.
Land Acknowledgments in NeoPagan Rituals: Perspectives from Ohlone Territory
We invite you to engage with your community about how the ideas presented here can transform your community and your practice. A land acknowledgment is just the first step of imagining and co-creating a better world where the lands, waters, animals, and human beings can thrive.
Learning to organize in a time of repression, climate crisis, and war
Humanitarian crises will weaken borders between “developed” and “underdeveloped” nations, and guaranteeing these borders will continue to weigh on the US Military. How can we better prepare for this impending fate?
The Wounded King Surrenders to the Land
Today there's going to be a conjunction of Saturn and Pluto, including a conjunction with the Sun, so astrologically it's a Big Deal. Many astrologers I follow observe that whenever there is a Saturn and Pluto conjunction there also tends to be a spike in Fascism. In service of this I wrote the following allegorical ritual poem that draws on the myths of the Fisher King / Wounded King.
Building a Relationship With Nature
The deep, dark wild woods, mysterious and magical, have an almost mythic status amongst Pagans. Indeed there is something so alluring about losing oneself beneath the canopy of the forest. However, for the beginner, the best place to start is somewhere close to you, somewhere you can visit daily or weekly. It can be a garden if you have one, or a local patch of trees, whatever. What is important is that you can get there as often as possible.
The Doors of the Soul
“The Doors of the Soul can be used in meditations dedicated to healing, raising or lowering magical energy at will, and inducing different emotions by focusing the mind on different parts of the body.”
COURSE: All That Is Sacred is Profaned
Rhyd Wildermuth’s popular course on Marxism—now pay-what-you-will!
G&R's 2019 Retrospective: Controversy
We cherish our writers and readers, and we also cherish our plurality of views. Debate is always welcome, and we are open to suggestions on how we can be better. Here, you’ll find the year’s debate highlights.
The Consequences of the Lack of Poetry in Witchcraft
We are the serial products that lose sense and purpose if our numbers are switched, reduced to a lowly existence, even less than what we are already systematically forced to be. In the eyes of the Witch, today we lack poetry.
New Year Celebrations - An Exploration of Folk Traditions from the British Isles
As I write this it’s Boxing day. My house is a riot of noise and merriment, filled with my loved ones and I reflect on how lucky I am, to have food in my cupboards, a roof over my head and the most basic of needs met. Boxing day always feels a little melancholy, a time to reflect on the year almost gone and think forward towards the next. I will forgo such musings today however. Instead, on this day of servants (Boxing day originated from the peasant class - so many would have been working on Christmas day itself, in service to the upper classes that the day after was their Christmas day, when they would give and receive their own Christmas boxes and spend time with their families) let’s explore some weird and wonderful New Year celebrations that make our modern way of seeing in the new year appear bland in comparison.
Riot Review of 2019: Resistance and The Western Gaze
This piece won’t have the pretence of analyzing the myriad of global uprisings and their effectiveness. It will deal critically with the Western gaze over Southern and Eastern movements — without promoting deradicalization. […] More often than not, mass media has been used to manipulate public opinion, and we must be critical, above all, of that which seems to have been catered for us.
The Chthonic King of Christmas
Roman priests knew the same truth psychotherapists know: deep desires and ancient drives cannot simply be consigned to the underworld. Sublimated urges live on still, quake through the illusory stability of our society, and resurface again to manifest their wills.
Winter King
‘When frost rimes my window I cannot forget
you were there at my beginning
and will greet me again at the end.’
The Transformative Power of Harvesting Wild Plants
To be honest, I still get knots in my stomach when I eat wild plants at a dinner, sometimes even when I’ve picked them myself. A little voice in my head still asks me, “are you really sure?”
Where does this anxiety come from exactly?
Cooking, Magic and Resistance
Learning to cook from scratch and even trying to grow your own food is an act of rebellion and resistance. These skills and knowledge are quickly being displaced by convenience foods that are not good for us and so in this way then, magic in the kitchen becomes another tool in our arsenal we can use to reclaim ourselves from the clutches of Capitalism. And it’s easier than you might think as well, the trick is to start small. There is no other way, all rebellions and resistance start as a trickle. Resist beautifully folks!
The Well of Wisdom
“The five streams that come from the Well are the five senses. The nuts from the hazels of wisdom drop down into the Well, to be eaten by the Salmon of Wisdom. The Salmon of Wisdom contains the Imbas, the mystical power of poetic inspiration and prophesy.”